Further on my literary displeasures:

(I'm going to have a more substantial and/or non-ranty post soon. I swear.)

You know what I'm starting to hate with fiery, burning passion? Automated book check-ins at the library. IT TAKES FOR FLIPPING EVER. "Place one item at a time face-up on the conveyor belt." There is an approximately 2-second delay for each one. I alone usually have at least half a dozen items I'm bringing back. Then consider how I usually have to wait for at least one person, if not several, to return their books before I can do anything. Do you know how many picture books children check out? DO YOU?

Look, I love the individual check-out stations. I love being able to run my own books under the little barcode scanner - I was always so jealous that librarians got to do that - even if I don't like the chiming sound the computer makes or the fact that I have to use a touch screen. But that's because they save time. The automated check-in station does not. Instead of me being able to simply place my stack of books on a table, I have to stand around waiting and then carefully feed them through.

I mean, is this really such an enormous time-wasting hassle for librarians, checking books in, that they have to let a machine do the legwork? How is this not a part of their job, when they spend all day there, versus my responsibility, when I'm carving out a side trip? Three minutes may be a relatively small slice of my day, but it feels much longer right there, and it's the principle of the thing.

Sorry. I'm just sick of going to this branch, even though it's closer than the one downtown and also has better movie selection. It's like walking into a giant warehouse, and it's always so frickin' crowded. It severely tests my patience that there's a coffee shop built into one end of it, it annoys me that I have to walk past a massive children's play area and at least two dozen computer stations (PEOPLE EVERYWHERE) to get to the books, and that even when I get to the books there are another dozen computers and a few tables set up in the "teen workspace area" beside the YA section, which is always populated with students working on group projects.

I MISS SILENCE, OKAY. I MISS OLD-SCHOOL LIBRARIES. WHERE BOOKS > TECHNOLOGY.--------------*huffs* In happier news, "License to Wed" was pure delight. No one told me that Kwen Kwapis was the director, or that there were Office cameos everywhere (MINDY KALING FTW)! Sure, I had to fast-forward during a number of scenes to escape their excruciating embarrassment, but mostly I was just giggling and "awww"ing all over the place! That was not nearly as lame as everyone told me it was going to be. I think maybe we underestimate my love of adorably silly romantic comedies.

Also Ben spends a lot of this movie being excessively frustrated, which...you know how I am about that. And then he punches someone. It's pretty much perfect.